Brown County Wind Turbine

East of Mt. Sterling and south of Highway 24, Adams Electric Cooperative has erected a 1.5 MW wind turbine.

The site is located south of the Cooperative’s Mt. Sterling substation. The location is being leased from Joseph Ray, a member of Adams Electric Cooperative.

Like the Pigeon Creek wind turbine, the Co-op’s Brown County wind turbine is a direct drive unit, meaning the three blades drive the generator. The blades start producing electricity in winds as light as 6.7 miles per hour and reach full capacity in winds starting at 24.6 miles per hour. The tips of the blades at full capacity turn at 149.1 miles per hour.

This direct drive unit will create an annual generation of 4 million kWhs of energy per year, enough for about 300-400 homes.

The Brown County Wind Turbine was manufactured by Vensys, located in Germany. The blades were made in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The tower was made in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The generator, nacelle and convertor were made in Germany. The parts arrived in Mt. Sterling, Illinois, by semis and were assembled on site using two massive cranes.

Each blade weighs about 6 tons and attaches to a 16 ton hub. The hub is attached to a generator weighing 45 tons. The new landmark stands 279 feet tall to the hub and 403 feet tall to the tip of the blade.

Each blade on the Brown County Wind Turbine is 122 feet long. The entire assembly including the tower, blades, generator and rotor contains 986 (1 ½ inch dia.) bolts.

The Cooperative received a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help fund thise project. Financing is secured through Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) which are low-interest loans (2.1%) for financing renewable energy projects.